Professional Documents
Culture Documents
• Dialogue appears in a
column down the centre of
the page indented from the
business. Its in the form :
• The name is straightforward right? It goes in UPPER
CASE.
• The direction isn't always given, in fact in a spec
screenplay you would provide hardly any - telling an
actor how to act is as bad as telling a director how to
direct!
• The only occasion you might put some in would be if
dialogue was directed specifically at another
character eg. (To Alberto) or if it has to be said in a
particular style (Whispering).
• And finally the dialogue itself.
• Try to keep it to a minimum, no long speeches here.
That way there is less for your actors to remember
and less for them to muck up.
• Good actors will always make the best of what you
have written for them and can provide so much
more with their intonation and body language
which you simply cannot write.
• It is said that speech is only 20% of good
communication & that body language comprises the
rest.
• Avoid exposition (that's when you character explains
something in detail) - try and show rather than tell.
• Keep it simple and heed Lew Hunter's words 'Good
dialogue is dialogue that illuminates what the
characters are not saying'.
CHARACTER NAMES
• In a shooting screenplay we
can add camera and actor
directions to the screenplay
- in a spec screenplay you
wouldn't do this - just like
you wouldn't turn round to
Coppola and say 'Do a Close
Up here'.
• But as this is our show we get to play director.
• At this stage these abbreviations may not mean to
much to you, however when we cover framing and
composition later in the semester you will gain a
much deeper understanding.
• The following abbreviations will enable you to write
the screenplay more efficiently...
• WS - Wide Shot
• LS - Long Shot
• MLS - Medium Long Shot
• MS - Mid Shot
• MCU - Mid Close Up
• CU - Close-up
• BCU - Big Close Up
• ECU - Extreme Close Up
• Two-Shot - Shot of two characters in the same
picture
• V.O. - voiceover
• O.S. - off screen
• P.O.V. - Point of view (eg. one of those wobbly
cameras they use when someone is breaking into an
apartment in a horror movie.)
• M.O.S. - without sound. Great for when your
characters are staking out some joint, watching the
bad guys pull off some drug deal and they can't hear
what they are saying.
CAMERA MOVEMENTS
• DISSOLVE TO :